News Archive - 31 July 2015

>The French-born Karpeles, 30, is suspected of falsifying data on the outstanding balance of the exchange, at one point the world's largest hub for trading the digital currency, they added.Police were unable to immediately confirm the reports.When it filed for bankruptcy in February 2014, Mt. Gox said 750,000...

>No reason was given for the suspension.Guzman, one of the world's most notorious drug traffickers, broke out of a maximum security prison earlier this month, escaping in a tunnel built right under his cell.The United States requested Guzman's extradition on June 25, just a couple weeks before his...

>NEW YORK Donald Trump is staking his run for U.S. president in part on a vow to protect American jobs. But this month, one of his companies, the elite Mar-a-Lago Club resort in Florida, applied to import 70 foreign workers to serve as cooks, wait staff and cleaners.A...

>The missed payment will mark the first default by the commonwealth and shows the depth of the island's economic and cashflow problems. Puerto Rico Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla shocked investors in June when he said the island's debt, totaling $72 billion, was unpayable and required restructuring. According to a 2014...

>A spokeswoman for the British police told Reuters: "There were no survivors, unfortunately. There were four people onboard including the pilot", but she did not provide their identities.Without confirming the identities of the victims, the Saudi Ambassador to Britain, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, offered condolences on the...

>The official Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) stood at 50 in July, down from the previous month's 50.2.The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted a reading of 50.2. (Editing by Kim Coghill)...

>The burned hulk of the plane was found near the town of Codazzi, about 600 kilometers (372 miles) northeast of Bogota near the border with Venezuela. President Juan Manuel Santos called the victims "heroes" in a Tweet. (Reporting by Helen Murphy; Editing by Andrew Hay)...

>WASHINGTON Dozens of emails on the private email account that Hillary Clinton used when secretary of state were recently classified by the government, the State Department said on Friday, giving Republican critics more ammunition against the Democratic presidential hopeful.The emails, released by the State Department under a judge's order,...

>Yahoo, which did not disclose terms of the deal, said Polyvore will accelerate its 'Mavens' growth strategy.The company has been focusing on four areas — mobile, video, native advertising and social — which it calls Mavens, to drive user engagement and ad sales as it battles intense competition from...

>NEW YORK Unless next week's payrolls report is an outlier, investors should expect a continuation of the directionless market that has kept the S&P 500 trading in place for most of the year.Should July post strong job gains, it would point to an economy strong enough for the Federal...

>Electronic Arts Inc is back from the "dark side".The video game publisher, voted the "worst company in America" on the Consumerist.com website in 2012 and 2013, is forecasting record revenue this year thanks to the anticipated success of a new Star Wars-themed game launching in November.EA said...

>FRANKFURT/SAN FRANCISCO BMW (BMWG.DE) and Apple (AAPL.O) may rekindle a courtship put on hold after an exploratory visit by executives of the world's top maker of electronic gadgets to the headquarters of the word's biggest seller of premium cars.Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook went to BMW's headquarters...

>An Israeli military spokeswoman said several suspects approached the fence at two different points and did not heed calls by soldiers to stop. She said one group threw stones at the security fence and that soldiers fired warning shots in the air before firing at the "suspects' lower extremities."Gaza...

>LAHAINA, Hawaii Talks on a Pacific Rim free-trade pact are unlikely to end in a final deal, sources involved in the negotiations said on Friday, with a dispute between Japan and North America over autos, New Zealand digging in over trade in dairy products and no agreement on monopoly periods...

Wesley PrudenLife’s a scream on the slippery slope

>"We see MBDA as a ... core business; we are proud to be one of its leading shareholders and want to be in the future," Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders told analysts in a conference call."If we can simplify it a little bit by having two partners in the...

>MIAMI Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Friday urged Congress to end the longstanding U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, calling it a "failed policy" that had done little or nothing to foster change on the communist-ruled island.Clinton, the former secretary of state to President Barack Obama, used a...

>NEW YORK The first report of Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s Super PAC, made public Friday, reveals for the first time, election lawyers say, just how much the group, Right to Rise, functioned as a kind of shadow campaign for Bush.The group shelled out $5.4 million from January...

>FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Democrat Hillary Clinton sought to persuade African-Americans on Friday to resist any temptation to side with Republican Jeb Bush in the 2016 presidential race as they offered differing visions on how to tackle economic and racial inequality.The annual convention of the National Urban League marked the...

>NEW YORK A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court's decision to clear Qualcomm Inc in a patent lawsuit by ParkerVision Inc, allowing it to escape a $173 million verdict for infringement. Trading in ParkerVision shares was halted on the Nasdaq after the price fell 50 percent...

>WASHINGTON The cybersecurity issues that led Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV to recall 1.4 million vehicles this month could pose a problem for cars and trucks from other automakers, the top U.S. auto safety regulator said on Friday.Mark Rosekind, who heads the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said...

>SAN FRANCISCO Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] is jostling with drivers suing for reimbursement of their expenses in advance of an important hearing next week in the fight over whether drivers are independent contractors or employees entitled to benefits.Three drivers sued Uber in a federal court in San Francisco,...

>LONDON/GENEVA The world is on the verge of being able to protect humans against Ebola, the World Health Organization said on Friday, as a trial in Guinea found a vaccine to have been 100 percent effective.    Initial results from the trial, which tested Merck (MRK.N) and NewLink Genetics’...

>The talks on a new bailout program are ongoing "with the IMF present and fully participating in the talks in Athens," Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva told journalists in Brussels. She said the IMF position was unchanged and added that its approach and timetable were "fully compatible with the European agenda,"...

>Five soldiers were killed and 15 have been missing since the Islamic State fighters attacked the checkpoint outside the eastern town of Ajdabiya, near the oil port of Bregaattack, one military official said. Two more soldiers were killed when the government sent reinforcements. Five were wounded."Fighting is continuing some...

>LONDON Now that U.S. Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen has made it clear she's looking out for "some" improvement in the job market before voting for the first Fed interest rate rise in nearly a decade, so is everyone else.The challenge is that the U.S. economy is...

>The Commission, which oversees EU mergers and competition issues, said it had concerns that the merged entity would face insufficient competitive constraints in small package deliveries from the only two remaining players - UPS (UPS.N) and DHL [DHL.UL], owned by Deutsche Post (DPWGn.DE)."Many businesses, and in...

>Coyote Logistics, which reported revenue of $2.1 billion last year, connects customers with truck operators and has a network of more than 35,000 operators in North America, UPS said.Brokers such as Coyote Logistics and XPO Logistics Inc (XPO.N) have reported rapid revenue growth in the past few...

>Berry Plastics, which makes products such as duct tapes, spray adhesives and food wrap films, said it would buy Avintiv on a debt-free, cash-free basis.Berry Plastics' shares rose nearly 2 percent to $34 in trading before the bell on Friday.Avintiv, which changed its name from PGI Specialty Materials...

>WASHINGTON With Donald Trump sucking up the oxygen on the campaign trail, these are stressful days for the group of Republican candidates who, try as they might, may not qualify for their party's first presidential debate in Cleveland next week.Under controversial rules laid down by debate host Fox News...

>WASHINGTON The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will unveil as soon as Monday the final version of a sweeping - and controversial - regulation to cut carbon emissions from the electricity sector.In its initial version, the Clean Power Plan called for cutting the country's power plant emissions 30 percent...

>Some members of the U.S. Congress, which will consider whether to approve the deal, have asked for more information to be made public relating to the International Atomic Energy Agency's part in verifying Iran's implementation of the pact. "I understand that Director General (Yukiya) Amano overnight (Vienna time) received...

>The Japanese electronics maker said it would sell its TV manufacturing plant in Mexico and license its brand in the Americas to China's Hisense Group. In a separate statement, Hisense said it would pay $23.7 million for the business.Osaka-based Sharp was once a highly profitable manufacturer of premium...

>China has the world's largest Internet population and Beijing is trying to better regulate the country's rapidly-changing Internet sector, drawing up rules for everything from censorship to cybersecurity and e-commerce.Companies which own payment systems can reap huge profits by charging transaction fees."Payment institutions should fully respect customer's right...

>Uber said it would use the additional investment to improve operations, expand beyond the 18 Indian cities where it now operates, and develop new products and payment solutions."We are extremely bullish on the Indian market and see tremendous potential here," Amit Jain, president of Uber India said in a...

>China claims most of the potentially energy-rich sea, through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year, and rejects the rival claims of Vietnam, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Taiwan.With the region having become Asia's biggest potential military flashpoint, the United States has urged claimants to settle differences...

>PESHAWAR, Pakistan At the Taliban meeting this week where Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour was named as the Islamist militant group's new head, several senior figures in the movement, including the son and brother of late leader Mullah Omar, walked out in protest.The display of dissent within the group's secretive...

>SAINT-DENIS, Reunion Plane debris washed up on the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean is almost certainly part of a Boeing 777, a Malaysian official and aviation experts said, potentially the biggest breakthrough in the search for missing Flight MH370.Malaysian investigators are expected in Reunion on Friday...

>NEW YORK As traders, market pundits and economists jaw over whether the Federal Reserve this year will lift its benchmark lending rate for the first time in almost a decade, several corners of the U.S. bond market are not waiting around.A wide range of short-term interest rates, which...

>The University of Michigan's final July reading on the overall index on consumer sentiment came in at 93.1, down from 96.1 in June. It was lower than the survey's preliminary reading of 93.3. The final reading was the lowest since May and was below the median forecast...

>WASHINGTON U.S. labor costs in the second quarter recorded their smallest increase in 33 years amid tepid gains in the private sector, but it likely was a temporary setback against the backdrop of diminishing labor market slack.The unexpectedly smaller rise reported by the Labor Department on Friday will...

>The Dow and S&P 500 were dragged down on Friday by weak earnings from oil producers Exxon Mobil and Chevron, while the Nasdaq edged up after Amgen's profit beat expectations.Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) shares fell 4 percent to $79.52 while Chevron (CVX.N) was down 4.2 percent...

>Weak oil prices CLc1 shriveled quarterly profit at Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) on Friday, compelling both companies to rethink operations and plan for what many expect to be a sustained period of cheap crude.Earnings at U.S. oil majors Exxon, which were the...